Maxime de la Rocheterie on Marie-Antoinette

"She was not a guilty woman, neither was she a saint; she was an upright, charming woman, a little frivolous, somewhat impulsive, but always pure; she was a queen, at times ardent in her fancies for her favourites and thoughtless in her policy, but proud and full of energy; a thorough woman in her winsome ways and tenderness of heart, until she became a martyr."

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

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Unless otherwise noted, any books I review on this blog I have either purchased or borrowed from the library, and I do not receive any compensation (monetary or in-kind) for the reviews.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

The Jubilee of Mercy begins today, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and will end on the Solemnity of Christ the King on November 20, 2016. Any Jubilee Year is a time when the Church opens the coffers of her graces to the faithful and penitent. Our Holy Father Pope Francis has placed a special emphasis on the Mercy of Our Savior, which brings to mind the devotions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Divine Mercy. There is also special relation of today's feast with the Mercy of God. To quote from Our Holy Father's Bull of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy:

This liturgical feast day recalls God’s action from the very
beginning of the history of mankind. After the sin of Adam and Eve, God
did not wish to leave humanity alone in the throes of evil. And so he
turned his gaze to Mary, holy and immaculate in love (cf. Eph 1:4),
choosing her to be the Mother of man’s Redeemer. When faced with the
gravity of sin, God responds with the fullness of mercy. Mercy will
always be greater than any sin, and no one can place limits on the love
of God who is ever ready to forgive. I will have the joy of opening the
Holy Door on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. On that day,
the Holy Door will become a Door of Mercy through which anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instills hope.

On the following Sunday, the Third Sunday of Advent, the Holy Door of
the Cathedral of Rome – that is, the Basilica of Saint John Lateran –
will be opened. In the following weeks, the Holy Doors of the other
Papal Basilicas will be opened. On the same Sunday, I will announce that
in every local church, at the cathedral – the mother church of the faithful in any particular area – or,
alternatively, at the co-cathedral or another church of special
significance, a Door of Mercy will be opened for the duration of the
Holy Year. At the discretion of the local ordinary, a similar door may
be opened at any shrine frequented by large groups of pilgrims, since visits to these
holy sites are so often grace-filled moments, as people discover a path
to conversion. Every Particular Church, therefore, will be directly
involved in living out this Holy Year as an extraordinary moment of
grace and spiritual renewal. Thus the Jubilee will be celebrated both in
Rome and in the Particular Churches as a visible sign of the Church’s
universal communion. (Read more.)

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